The Fangs of Bloodhaven (11 page)

Chapter Ten

Celeste was watering the plants on the porch when Everett hurried inside.

“You’re cutting it a little close, aren’t you?” she called after him.

“I kept to the shadows,” Everett replied. In truth, he felt a little over-baked. The sun had definitely lingered too long on his skin. He had reached the house just when mist started to rise from his body.

Grateful for the welcoming darkness in his room, Everett fell on his bed, exhausted from the night’s events. After a few minutes of pondering what had happened, a smile spread across his face. He had saved the teenager. He had been able to keep from drinking the human’s blood. He had found a way to convince Dr. Transton that vampires weren’t so bad, at least not all of them.

His smile faltered at the realization of what he had learned. A vampire was responsible for Monique being a zombie. His kind created her kind when they bit humans. It was the truth, a fact, and something Everett had denied for so many years. Pain filled him along with a sadness so sharp he could barely breathe.

“Everett?” Celeste’s face appeared in the doorway. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” he replied. He shoved away the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him and schooled his face not to show his thoughts when he looked at his sister.

Most of his siblings chose to avoid the basement, giving him his space, but Celeste had told him before that too much space was bad. When he first learned he was a vampire, Everett had withdrawn into himself almost completely. He refused to leave his room for fear that he was a danger to his brothers and sisters, and he hated drinking the pig’s blood his mother brought and insisted on watching him swallow it down before she would leave.

Celeste had taken it upon herself to bring Everett back into the family. She spent days in the basement with him, skipping school and leaving only to help Mom take care of Bran and Annie. She never pushed him, but showed just by being there that she didn’t fear what he was.

Eventually, she brought Donavan, and then Finch and Gabe, with her. Soon, every Masterson child not confined to a wheelchair spent their evenings playing board games in the basement. A few nights later, Everett followed them upstairs to eat dinner. It was the first time since being told what he was that he felt somewhat normal again.

Celeste smiled and came inside. “You’ve been quite the wanderer lately,” she said.

Everett sat up and nodded. “The city’s become more interesting.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Mom would be horrified to know you spend all this time on the streets at night. She’s convinced the dark creatures will get anyone who sets foot on asphalt after sundown. I had to convince her you were at the sleepover with Gabe and Finch, but both of us know that isn’t true, or safe. Luckily, she’s been too busy with the coming full moon to worry too much about it.”

Everett gave her a sharp look. “What dark creatures?”

Celeste’s shoulders lifted. “I’m not sure. You know Mom and her scare tactics. She’s just trying to keep us safe.”

“I’m not so sure,” Everett replied. At his older sister’s surprised look, he explained, “About the dark creatures, not Mom keeping us safe. I think she’s right.”

His sister watched him closely. “You mean, there are dark creatures out there?”

“I think so,” he admitted. He hesitated, wondering how much to tell her. Celeste had been his rock through so much; the least he could do was trust her. “I saved someone’s life today.” He paused, gathering his thoughts.

He had always appreciated the way she waited instead of pressing him for information. She had the gift of patience when he needed a minute to think about what he wanted to say. He knew her patience was what helped to make her such a great caretaker.

“He was attacked by something in the tunnels.” Everett’s voice dropped as he remembered. “There was blood everywhere. His chest was torn as if something big had clawed him. He begged me to save his life.”

“There was blood everywhere?” Celeste repeated. She watched him closely. “You were okay? I noticed you only drank half of your vitamin drink yesterday.”

“That was a bad move on my part,” Everett admitted. “It tasted funny. We need to get a new batch.”

“Already done,” his sister replied. She smiled at him. “When I saw you hadn’t finished it, I figured it must have been getting old. I traded for some more this afternoon.”

“Thank goodness.” Everett looked up at the ceiling. “In answer to your question, no, I wasn’t okay. Not drinking that boy’s blood was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was dripping from him, calling to me.” He swallowed through a tight throat.

Celeste set a hand on his knee. “I’m proud of you for not doing it.”

His voice was quiet when he asked, “How do you know I didn’t?”

Celeste’s smile deepened. “Everett, you have more courage and control than any person I’ve ever met. Why do you think out of all of us you’re the one who’s a vampire? It’s because you can handle it.”

No one had ever said it quite like that to him before. His sister’s faith in him made him feel stronger.

“So you took the boy to the hospital?” Celeste asked. He could hear the worry in her voice; both of them knew what would happen if a vampire showed up to the hospital with a bleeding human. The vampire would never make it home.

He wanted to tell her about the Asylum to ease her fears, but he had promised Dr. Transton.

“Don’t worry. I know better than that. I found somebody who would take him.”

“Oh, good,” Celeste breathed. She stood. “Maybe you can keep your wanderings to a minimum for a bit so Mom doesn’t catch on.”

“I will,” Everett replied.

She patted his knee. “Take care of yourself, little brother. There are too many people here who love you. Don’t get too reckless.

“I’ll be careful,” he promised.

When she left, he found himself wondering if too many promises were going to get him in trouble. He tried to find a soft place on his pillow, but he couldn’t get comfortable. He knew it was more to do with the fact that his mind would not slow down rather than the pillow itself; his mom always made sure her children had clean, comfortable bedding.

Half of him feared that he would awaken only to find out that the Asylum had been a dream; the other half, fear he would realize it was real. If vampires could do such things to humans, the Pentagrin was right to destroy those they could. He was a threat to his family. Though he spent so much time telling himself he was almost human, the truth made him into their worst enemy.

When Everett finally shut his eyes, Donavan called down, “Rett, time for dinner!”

“Seriously?” he groaned. He pushed up to a sitting position, debating whether it was worth going up or if he should try to catch a few minutes of sleep.

“Everett, honey, are you coming?” his mother called down.

A begrudging smile spread across Everett’s face. Celeste had asked him not to give her any reason for worry. He stood.

“I’m on my way,” he replied.

“See,” he heard his mother tell someone as they walked to the kitchen. “He’s doing just fine.”

Everett found everyone around the table when he went up. He joined them and forced a smile, trying not to remind himself that they could be like Dr. Transton’s daughter if he ever couldn’t control his cravings.

Celeste set his cup in front of him, breaking his train of thought. “Thank you,” he told her.

“Any time,” she replied. She ruffled his hair because she knew he hated it when she did that.

Celeste sat back down on the other side of Bran. Their mother was already helping Annie take a bite of applesauce. Everett tipped the cup up and sucked the blood through his hollow fangs so that it entered his blood stream directly. It was fresher this time, so the coppery taste wasn’t quite so prominent. Despite the fact that he had already drunk half a serving at the Asylum, he was careful to finish every last drop, telling himself that the next time he found someone bleeding in the tunnels, he might not be so strong.

As soon as dinner was finished, the sun had set enough that he could safely go outside. He stepped onto the porch, intent on the path that led to the tunnels.

“Leaving again?”

Everett spun around at the sound of Celeste’s voice. She sat on the porch swing with her feet up on the railing. The blonde highlights in her brown hair had been caught back in a braid around the crown of her head, leaving the darker strands down.

Everett searched for something to say. “Don’t you have studying to do?”

Celeste shrugged. “I took the night off. Donavan’s playing chess with Annie, and Bran wanted to watch a movie.” She dropped her feet and leaned forward with her elbows on her knees. “Usually it’d be the perfect time to study, but I’m more interested in where my little brother escapes to every night.”

“Not every night...” Everett stalled.

“Every night since you brought that girl home. There was something a bit different about her. I can’t put my finger on it.”

“She’s a werewolf.”

Celeste stared at Everett, shocked by his words as much as his confession. “She saved my life,” he said quietly.

Celeste shook her head without taking her eyes off him. “To think we had a real werewolf under our roof. Mom and Dad would’ve gone crazy if they knew.”

“I know,” Everett replied with a sigh. “Monsters are dangerous and—”

“No, silly,” Celeste said, cutting him off. “Imagine how excited Mom would be if she could study someone affected so severely by the changes of the moon. I mean, she’d probably have her over every night to see if the wolfism, or whatever you call it, gets more prominent as the full moon draws near. And Dad, don’t even get me started on Dad.”

“But they’ve never shown an interest in monsters before,” Everett said, confused.

Celeste grinned. “They’re just keeping you in the dark because you are one of the monsters.” She winked at him. “Remember?”

Everett leaned against the railing with a smile. “You might be right.”

“Cross-species DNA,” Celeste probed. “Imagine how Dad would flip! A werewolf contains everything he’s been trying to create in his bees, and able to exist as both. What if bees and wasps could interchange like that?” She rose from her chair. “We should probably tell them about Adrielle.”’

Everett grabbed her arm. “No, you can’t!” At her stare, he dropped his hand. “Celeste, I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.”

“You’re not very good at keeping a secret,” she said.

Everett lowered his gaze. “I know.”

She sighed. When he glanced up at her, she gave a reluctant smile. “Fine. I won’t tell them. But if she’s ever open to the idea, let them know. They would be head over heels for it.”

“I will,” he promised.

Celeste nodded toward the street. “You’d better get going. Your chance for a little midnight flirtation is right now, and I don’t want you cutting it so close on getting home. You’re going to burst into flames before you get through the door.”

“Okay,” Everett said. He stepped off the porch. “Thanks, Celeste.”

She waved at him before disappearing inside.

The fact that she thought he was flirting with Adrielle made his chest tight. He didn’t know how the werewolf thought about him, and couldn’t put into words how he felt about her, but he wasn’t about to correct his sister. It made leaving easier and might even get her off his back for a while.

He ducked into the tunnel, his senses alert. He wished rumors were true and vampires could see in the dark. It would definitely make skirting past shadows and the unlit branches of tunnels a whole lot less scary. Luckily, the smell of blood was dull and old when he walked by the place he had found the teenager. He gritted his teeth and hurried past the spot without stopping.

Chapter Eleven

“Vampires are the enemy,” Everett said with a wry smile.

Xander gave a small snort of what sounded like laughter before he opened the door.

“Thank you,” Everett told him. He took a few steps down the hallway, then paused and glanced back. “Do you ever get bored?”

Xander’s small eyes shifted from left to right as though he was worried someone would overhear his answer. The thought of the huge, hulking ogren being concerned about anything was nearly inconceivable. Everett couldn’t imagine anyone messing with him if they did have a problem.

“I get the munchies,” Xander finally admitted. He looked away as though the slightest mention of such a weakness was embarrassing.

Everett smiled. “I’m a vampire. Trust me, I understand the munchies.”

Xander’s mouth cracked open and a deep bass sound rolled down the hallway. It took Everett a second to realize the ogren was laughing.

Xander bent over and held his abundant rolls of stomach as the booming laughter continued to emanate from depths Everett couldn’t even imagine. The big man finally put a hand against the door to steady himself before he fell off of his tiny stool.

“You’re funny, vampire boy,” he said.

“Thanks,” Everett replied, grinning. “I’d better head up. Catch you later.”

Xander gave a wide smile. “Later.”

Once inside the elevator, Everett was about to push the button for the sixth floor, then hesitated. Curious, he put his finger on the small pad Dr. Transton had used. He was a little disappointed when the additional numbers didn’t light up. Curiosity about what else lay beyond the tenth floor filled him. He had learned so much about monsters in the past several days he couldn’t imagine what else was missing from his monster education.

The door opened on the sixth floor and Everett was surprised to see Dr. Transton standing there.

“Hello, Everett,” Dr. Transton said. “Did you get some rest?”

“Yes,” Everett replied, though he wasn’t sure lying on his bed with his mind whirling until Donavan called him for dinner would be considered rest.

“Good, good.” Dr. Transton motioned for Everett to follow him to the desk. “Glad to hear it.”

“How’s the boy?” Everett asked.

Dr. Transton sat down. “His condition is stable. Only time will tell if he’s going to pull through. The hard thing about humans is that they don’t heal as well as vampires.”

At the doctor’s knowing look, Everett gave an embarrassed smile. “Adrielle told you about the alley.”

Dr. Transton nodded. “She mentioned it. I’m impressed she stitched you up.”

“I made a pretty poor attempt to rescue her from those guys.”

The doctor smiled. “She mentioned that, too.”

Everett cracked a smile in return. “Hungry vampires aren’t nearly as terrifying as we’re made out to be.”

Dr. Transton’s gaze darkened. “I suppose that depends on the vampire.”

Everett wanted to smack himself in the forehead when he remembered Monique. He searched for another topic. “Um, Doc, can I have access to the floors above ten?”

Dr. Transton gave him a searching look. “What for?”

“Well,” Everett thought quickly. “Sometimes I get a bit claustrophobic and the roof is beautiful. It’d be nice to go up and visit.”

“You seemed a bit skeptical about the concept of magic,” Dr. Transton told him.

Everett went with the honest answer. “It does seem a bit farfetched, don’t you think? I mean, floors that appear out of nowhere in a building that is obviously only ten stories from the outside. It’s all a bit much to take in.”

“So what changed?” the doctor asked.

“I think I learned that nothing is as it seems,” Everett answered. “Magic became real.”

Dr. Transton nodded as if the answer pleased him. He turned the glass screen of his computer. “Put your finger here.”

Everett touched the small red box on the screen where the doctor indicated. The box turned green.

“Okay, you’re good.”

“That’s it?” Everett asked, surprised.

Dr. Transton looked at him. “Did you expect confetti or balloons?”

“Maybe fireworks.”

Dr. Transton chuckled. “Have a good time on the roof.” When Everett stood, he said, “But be careful. Some of the floors really aren’t safe. Sometimes the floors are more to keep the inhabitants in than the rest of us out. There’s a reason they’re hidden. I’m trusting you.”

“I know,” he told the doctor. “I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Dr. Transton nodded. He picked up a newspaper. The headline facing Everett proclaimed, ‘Beast Attacks School after Hours. Claws Cause Shutdown.’

Everett paused. “Do you think that’s the same creature that attacked the boy?”

Dr. Transton turned the paper around and studied the article. “It’s hard to say. This happened in Humorum.”

“The water city?” Everett replied.

“The water cleansing city,” Dr. Transton corrected. “They’re responsible for the clean water that runs to each city.”

Everett nodded, remembering his father’s discussions on the subject. “So the school was a primary school then.” In Pentagrin, children in each of the five great cities went to school in their home city until they graduated from primary school. If they then chose to go to secondary education, they went to boarding colleges in Cognitum, the city of knowledge.

“Yes,” Dr. Transton answered. “Though why the creature attacked an empty school, I have no idea.”

Everett walked to the elevator with his mind racing. The cities were walled and secured by patrols. Humorum was across from Nectorum, his home city which specialized in growing produce. The ruling capitol of Regent was in between with its own walls and fortifications to protect the Kingship. It made no sense that the creature would attack in the Nectorum tunnels, and then make itself known in Humorum. A knot tightened in Everett’s stomach at the thought that there may be more than one of them.

The elevator door slid open to reveal Adrielle waiting inside. A beaming smile spread across her face.

“Oh, good, you’re done,” she said. “Come on. I’ve got something to show you.” She caught his arm.

Everett allowed her to drag him inside.

“Hello, Adrielle,” Dr. Transton said.

“Hi, Dr. Transton,” she called as the door slid shut. She shook her head. “I hope he heard me. Sometimes I get in a hurry and forget that other people exist.”

A chuckle escaped Everett. At Adrielle’s look, he explained, “My twin brothers are the same way. They’re so busy playing, creating, and adventuring that I think everything else falls away. It’s amazing to watch them.”

“I should come visit again.”

Adrielle and Everett stared at each other. She seemed surprised at her suggestion.

The thought of having her back at his house made Everett’s heartbeat speed up. He forced his thoughts to focus. “You, um, you’re welcome to come over again.”

“Thanks,” Adrielle replied. She looked at the ground, the walls, and then the ceiling. “Uh, your family is great.”

“They’re wonderful,” he agreed. “And they liked having you over.”

“They did?” she asked as if it truly meant a lot to her.

Everett nodded. “They really did,” he told her honestly. “You can come back whenever you want.”

“So, um, do they know what I am?” she asked.

Everett shook his head. A surprisingly crestfallen expression crossed her face. “I could tell them, though,” he rushed on, anxious to see her smile again. “They really wouldn’t mind. In fact...” He hesitated, then said, “I’m sure they’d both have lots of questions for you. My mom could use the help on her studies of the moon, and Dad would love to talk to someone about cross-species DNA.”

Adrielle’s answering smile warmed him. “You’re cross-species, you know.”

“I’m a vampire,” Everett replied. “It’s a subspecies.”

She shook her head. “How do you think vampires were created?”

“We’re a result of the fallout,” he answered flatly. It was a subject that had bothered him greatly growing up. Being a fluke of nature wasn’t something most kids enjoyed. Striving to be normal had turned into an impossible goal when he couldn’t survive more than a day or two without drinking blood.

Adrielle seemed to make up her mind. She pressed the button for floor seven.

“Where are we going?” Everett asked.

The door slid open in answer. The scent of paper, ink, dust, and wood assailed his nose. He stepped out and stared at the rows upon rows of books that lined shelves from the floor to the impossibly high ceiling above. Ladders lined the walls and the tops of them were almost out of sight.

“What kind of a library is this?” he breathed.

“The monster kind,” Adrielle replied with a wink. She tipped her head invitingly. “Come on.”

“How are there so many books in the world?” Everett asked.

Adrielle smiled at the awe in his voice. “There used to be so much more,” she said. “But after the electromagnetic pulses that marked the end of the Ending War, anything electronic was wiped out. They were able to create new computers, but they have to be hardwired to the system. Dr. Transton said the fear of losing everything again has kept the Kingship from approving new prototypes for sharing knowledge electronically again. Books are worth more than gold.”

Everett’s father took special care of his own pre-Ending War books, treating them with great respect and making sure they were clean if his children borrowed them. To obtain others, he had to write a special request to the Kingship. Everett couldn’t imagine how much a library like the one at the Monster Asylum would cost, but knew his dad would go great lengths to visit such a place.

“So all of these books are about monsters?” he asked in amazement.

Adrielle nodded. “Anything that’s been written about or by monsters is here, fiction and nonfiction.” She grinned with a hint of embarrassment. “There is a section of the more risqué monster books, but I would recommend steering clear of those.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I found them by accident when I was researching yetis.”

Everett stared up at the towering stacks. “Most of these books had to have been before the Ending War. That’s there only way there could be so many.” At Adrielle’s answering nod, he asked, “Why did they write so much about monsters before monsters existed?”

Adrielle gave a little laugh. “You know, I’ve never thought about that.” She touched a book lying on a nearby desk. The title said, ‘The Odyssey’ by an author named Homer. “Some of them are very old. Maybe they had different kinds of monsters back then.”

For some reason, the thought that they weren’t the only creatures in the world the human race feared appealed to Everett. He didn’t know if it was because thinking the humans’ own chemical warfare had created something they weren’t prepared to face ate at him, or if he hoped the creatures before the Ending War had been worse so that his kind didn’t seem so bad. Either way, it made him feel better to see how much literature had been written about monsters. Perhaps humans had learned to exist with them before; if that was the case, maybe they would someday be able to do so again.

Adrielle searched the shelves quickly as if she had been there many times. At the fourth bookshelf in, she climbed up the ladder that leaned against it.

“Here it is,” she said. “Rett, catch.”

Shocked that she would drop a book, Everett hurried over and caught it before it could hit the ground. The title was scrolled and inlaid with gold paint that said, ‘The Vampire Conundrum.’ A quick glance at the page after the cover said it had been written in Fifteen AEW, After the Ending War.

“Only fifteen years after the war?” Everett repeated in amazement. “If vampires were created by the fallout, how did they know this much stuff about them by then?”

“Read it,” Adrielle said. “You’ll learn a lot.” At his look, she lowered her gaze to the ground. “When Dr. Transton told me what happened to Monique, I read everything I could about vampires. I feared them.” She looked up at him. “It’s easy to fear a nightmare, but a little less easy when one is looking right at you with eyes as deep as yours.”

Her words sent a tremor down his spine. He stared at her, amazed at how golden her eyes looked in the dim lighting of the library. With her white-blonde hair and her teasing smile, she was entrancing, even beautiful. Her gaze traveled to his lips. He felt the sudden urge to kiss her. He had never kissed a girl before. He couldn’t deny how the thought made his heart skip. She was so kind, sweet, and caring, and the way she watched him made him feel like he was the only other person in the world. He took a step forward and her face lifted to his.

“Adrielle, baby, long time no see.”

Adrielle spun around so quickly she knocked the book from Everett’s hand. He dropped to one knee and groped for it without taking his eyes off the strange boy who had suddenly appeared at the beginning of the shelves. He looked about a year older than Everett, had long dark brown hair, and wore a short, black top hat. A purple and black waistcoat, purple pants, and a black shirt underneath made up his attire.